Happy New Year From MATRIXSYNTH! - A Look Back at 2014

Happy New Year everyone!

I want to start by thanking everyone that comes to MATRIXSYNTH and helps make it what it is - the readers, the supporters, and of course all the sponsors on the right.

THANK YOU and have a GREAT 2015!!!

This site is a labor of love and a ton of work. This site is ultimately meant to be an testament to everything synth in the making. We have over nine years of daily synth history captured here, 119,983 published posts. I can't wait to see what the future brings us in 2015!

That said, here are a few interesting bits from 2014 in the longest post of the year. ;)

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In The Loop - EMU Systems Episode - The History of EMU with Dave Rossum & Scott Wedge

Published on Feb 24, 2014 Video4dvd·60 videos

This one in via Mike McRoberts

"Here’s a great video of the history of E-Mu, from the founders Dave Rossum and Scott Wedge. It was posted by Kevin Monahan on the E-Mu Facebook page. The host is Denise Gallant, one of the pioneers of video synthesis. Denise built one of the first advanced video synthesizers in the 1970’s. Also on the program, Kevin Monahan and Max Mobely. I had the pleasure of working with Kevin when I was at E-Mu. Kevin was one of the longtime E-Mu employees, and was one of the sound designers for the Proteus. He received a patent for his data compression work on the Proteus."

Some of you might remember the title of this one from this post.

December 1978 E-Mu Modular Catalog

You'll find the PDF here.

Huge thanks to Mike McRoberts for sending this one in.

"Andrew Longhurst, who used to be an E-Mu guy in the UK when I was at E-Mu, posted this on the E-Mu FB page."

NED Synclavier II Brochure, Akai's Mike McRoberts, AES, Sting & Branford Marsalis

Some scans of the NED Synclavier II brochure and a cool little bit of synth history in via Mike McRoberts. If you remember from this earlier post, Mike was the US Project manager for Akai during the MPC-60 days.

"The best event I ever went to at a trade show was sponsored by NED. It was at AES, and was a private party at the Palladium in NYC. I managed to get a couple of the metal embossed tickets. It seemed like a normal product presentation, until they announced Sting. Sting came out and sang to a track played by the Synclavier. This was right before his first solo album had come out. Then Sting, said. 'Let's bring out Branford Marsalis.' He came out playing a soprano sax. Then Sting, one by one, brought out his new touring band that had supported on the his solo album. It was a great night of new music."

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The Akai ADR15 (MPC60) - Synth History with Mike McRoberts

The following is a fascinating bit of synth history that I was never aware of. The famed Akai MPC-60 was internally and originally named the ADR15.  That's the prototype pictured to the left and directly below. The sole US Project Manager for Akai at the time was Mike McRoberts pictured in the third shot below.  You'll find an interview with him on his time at Akai and the MPC60 at BBOY Tech Report here. Definitely check it out.

Regarding how it became the MPC60, from that interview: "'It was originally named the ADR15, along with the sequencer-only version named the ASQ10. One day, Jerry Freed, who was president of International Music Company, called me into his office and asked me what ADR15 stood for. I said that the ADR could stand for Akai Drum Recorder, but the number 15 had no relationship to it. Jerry said, 'Let’s brainstorm. What is this machine?' I said, 'Well it’s basically a MIDI production center, it’s got a 60,000 note sequencer….'. Jerry interrupted me and said, 'How about MPC60?' I think I said, 'Sounds good to me.' And that was the origin of it"

I asked Mike McRoberts what happened to the prototype and he had the following to say:

"Around 1989-90, Akai had decided to discontinue the MPC60, despite the fact it was a huge success in the US. It wasn't selling well in the rest of the world. We convinced them to keep it in the line, but for about 6 months there was no supply. I had decided I wanted to do sequencing in a Mac. I called a friend who was a keyboard tech for various artists, and told him I was thinking of selling it. Twenty minutes later it was sold.

There were two differences between the ADR15 and the MPC60 other than the name. The LCD display was fixed, not in a tilting enclosure. And the arm rest was foam rubber, not the nicer leather-like arm rest the MPC had."

It's interesting to think that the MPC60 like Roland's TB-303 were not deemed enough of a commercial success at the time to continue production.

Below are a few images in via Mike McRoberts, including a few advert scans.  The 2nd image below is him with Michael Jackson's band for the Bad tour who did Akai clinics during the tour. In order from left to right: Ricky Lawson (drums), Mike McRoberts (Akai), Greg Phillinganes (keyboards), and Rory Kaplan (keyboards).

Update: be sure to see the following Akai demo videos from Mike Roberts:

Akai S3000 Advanced Sampling Operations
Akai 1994 Product Sampler